Mersey Valley again

Banded demoiselle, by Kenworthy Woods

The great tits brought their youngsters into the garden this morning. The parents spent a lot of their time ferrying insects picked off the Pyracantha flowers to the youngsters shivering their wings in the rowan tree. The rowan tree's serving as a kindergarten for titmice this year.

It hadn't warmed down much so I parked the plans for another day. Then between my leaving the house and my arriving at the station the train to Warrington was cancelled so that knocked another idea on the head. So I went over to the Trafford Centre and played bus station bingo. The 248 to the airport was first out. That gave me the options of Wellacre Country Park, Carrington Moss, Banky Meadow, Priory Gardens or Wythenshawe Park. Priory Gardens offered more shade and I could then move on to Sale Water Park and see where I go from there.

Blackbird

I got off the bus and walked into Priory Gardens. Most of the woodland locally was planted within my lifetime, the gardens were abandoned well before that and has a lot of mature trees and not a lot of understory except at the margins. Blackbirds, blackcaps, robins and chiffchaffs sang in the trees and bushes by the main path at the side. A pair of mistle thrushes held court further in, rattling their displeasure at my passing by.

Priory Gardens 

I meandered my way back to the main path and then onto the patch of meadow at the corner by the motorway. I'd hoped there might be a whitethroat about but I was disappointed. Blackcaps and chiffchaffs sang in the hedgerows. Speckled woods and holly blues fluttered about the woodland margins, large whites and common blues across the meadow. At last! My first common blue damselflies of the year zipped about the brambles in the hedgerows.

Common blue damselfly

That small patch had a remarkable miscellany of intertwining brambles in flower, including one with big, semi-double flowers. Any time I despair of the ludicrous complexities of gull watching I think of botanists studying brambles.

Bramble
A semi-double form

Bramble
A narrow-petalled form

I crossed the motorway into Sale Water Park. It being the Whit Week school holidays it was bedlam though the mute swans and Canada geese were making a living by it so long as they didn't mind sharing the lake with kids and dogs. The car park was swarming with common blue damselflies.

Common blue damselfly

Barrow Brook 

I walked round and joined the path by Barrow Brook and suddenly everything was a lot quieter. Or would have been had the parakeets turned it down a bit. Blackbirds, blackcaps, dunnocks and wrens were doing most of the heavy lifting with the singing with chiffchaffs, robins and a song thrush doing the backing vocals. Blue tits fidgeted about in the trees and a family of long-tailed tits worked their way through the willows by the brook.

I emerged blinking into the sunlight at Jackson's Boat. There was a nice breeze blowing down the river so I decided I'd walk down to Kenworthy Woods, the advantage being that this was the side of the river with some shade. I was grateful for it, too, despite the breeze.

River Mersey 

The river was low after a dry Spring. Mallards and Canada geese loafed by the waterside and a cormorant swam downstream. Whitethroats and blue tits fidgeted about in the willows on the bank, more whitethroats sang on the golf course with blackcaps and chiffchaffs. Banded demoiselles fluttered about the bank, the green females out in the open, the dramatic blue males tending to keep to the cover of vegetation.

Banded demoiselle

A grey wagtail was where I expected it to be. Less expected were the half a dozen sand martins nesting in the same place. The sand martins hawked low over the river, it was rare that they rose above the bank. The top of the bank was busy with banded demoiselles, painted ladies, large whites and common blues, making up in numbers for a dismal first half of the month. A little further along a pair of mandarin ducks loafed by the water. They're becoming a lot more common on our stretch of the Mersey.

Mandarin ducks

Latest contender for the giant butterbur leaf of the year

Hand for scale

Approaching Kenworthy Woods 

Swifts and swallows hawked over the river as I wandered on and into Kenworthy Woods. The woodland songscape was quieter, more dispersed but still a steady backing track to the walk. Blue tits and long-tailed trees fidgeted through the trees but there was a notable absence of great tits. My surprise at surprising a rabbit almost had me miss a bullfinch quietly exiting the scene stage left. 

Kenworthy Woods 

Brimstones and speckled woods fluttered about the woodside margins as I headed for the bus stop on the other side of the motorway, and an extended family of long-tailed tits stretched itself over the hawthorn bushes punctuating the complex of slip roads. I contemplated staying on the bus and having a wander round Alexandra Park but the convenience of the connection with my bus home at Hough End proved too alluring, much to the relief of a pair of feet desperate to get out of hot boots.

Mersey Valley

Mallard, River Mersey

It was a cooler, grey day and I felt like having a lazy morning of it. Magpies rattled in the rowan tree, they seem to be having it to themselves this year, I've hardly seen the blackbirds at all. They probably fattened themselves so much on the boysenberries they don't have to eat for a couple of years, the gannets. The juvenile spadgers seem to have got themselves into some sort of lumber, they've been being supervised by the old cock sparrows the past few days.

Cock sparrows, juvenile and adult, Old Silvercheeks

I was seeing friends in Sale for teatime so I decided to walk it and get some exercise. There wasn't much of anything about in Stretford early afternoon, the pigeons and woodpigeons were having a siesta on the rooftops and a house martin was hawking over the shopping mall.

Walking to Stretford Ees 

It wasn't a lot busier walking by the brook to Stretford Ees. Woodpigeons and magpies clattered about in the trees while black-headed gulls and lesser black-backs floated by overhead. It was subtly busier on Stretford Ees: if I stood still and listened after a tram passed by I could hear the mutterings of disturbed blue tits, goldfinches and chiffchaffs in the trackside vegetation.

A lone mallard stood on a rock in the Mersey. Where there's one there's usually more hiding under the riverbanks but not today. Nor any wagtails.

Sale Water Park 

I decided I didn't have time for a nosy at Broad Ees Dole and contented myself with a scan of the lake from the tramside path. Being Summer holidays there was plenty of activity out there, mostly groups of kids being taught how to sail. A juvenile shag had been reported on the lake over the weekend and again first thing today. With the lake being so busy and my not having time for a walk round I didn't fancy my chances and was surprised that it was the first bird as saw as I picked up my binoculars. It was sat by itself on a fencepost by the water sports centre, well away from the crowd of Canada geese, black-headed gulls and cormorants over by the slipway. The usual herd of mute swans were way over the other side of the lake. A few mallards kept to the reed margins by Broad Ees Dole. As did the great crested grebe with a humbug nestling in its back feathers. I'd thought they given up on breeding this season.

Priory Gardens 

Under the motorway I went and into a very quiet Priory Gardens. A couple each of woodpigeons and robins sang. Great tits and blue tits occasionally and very briefly broke cover as they dashed between trees and a couple of goldfinches twittered in the treetops.

I walked into Sale, the woodpigeons of the housing estates being abruptly replaced by pigeons in the town centre a block away from the tram stop.

I had too much very agreeable pizza to contemplate walking back home.

Mersey Valley again

Blackbird, Priory Gardens 

It was another train strike day which limited my options, I didn't feel like doing much and had an excuse for not doing it. It was also another fine sunny day and I could hear myself complaining about all this sunshine any day now so I dragged myself out to play while the weather was nice.

I went over to the Trafford Centre and played bus schedule bingo. The 18 was the next bus out so I caught it and got off at Priory Gardens for a walk along the Mersey.

Priory Gardens 

Priory Gardens was a riot of sound nearly all of which was blackbirds, robins and wrens. A song thrush struggled to make itself heard. Blue tits, great tits and blackcaps bounced about in the undergrowth. A couple of blackcaps sang in the distance but it wasn't until I near the clearing by the motorway I could hear them clearly, together with a couple of chiffchaffs and a whitethroat. I joined the path by the motorway and went over the bridge onto Sale Water Park.

Mute swan and Canada geese, Sale Water Park 

Mute swans and Canada geese loafed by the waterside café. A couple of pairs of geese had goslings in tow. A few mallards were scattered about and a cormorant panted on the pontoon, they seem to feel the heat quicker than most birds.

Cormorant, Sale Water Park 

Ring-necked parakeet, Sale Water Park 

There was more singing in the trees — blackbirds, robins and wrens, blackcaps and chiffchaffs, and song thrushes trying to drown out all the rest. Pairs of dunnocks chased around in the bushes, woodpigeons and ring-necked parakeets clattered about in the treetops.

Robin, Sale Water Park 

I had a sit-down by the café, not expecting much activity on the bird feeders. It was pretty quiet: a squirrel had taken up squatter's rights on the bird table and a couple of great tits flitted to and from the sunflower feeders. Every so often a robin would bob by or a coal tit sneak in while nobody was looking. Everything scattered when a couple of kids passed by and they tried to see where the squirrel went. The first bird back on the feeders was a willow tit. It had the chance to grab one sunflower seed before it was chased off by a great tit which didn't bother to stop and feed, it was evidently just in the mood for a bit of bovver. While I was watching this my first azure damselfly of the year landed on my camera bag then zipped off to hunt around the cranesbills on the bank.

Barrow Brook

I walked along Barrow Brook towards Jackson's Boat. Yet more robins, wrens and blackbirds sang in the trees. Great tits and goldfinches flitted about the hedgerows almost as much as the brimstones and speckled woods fluttering about the path margins.

Jackson's Boat 

Blackcaps joined the soundscape at Jackson's Boat, accompanied by chiffchaffs and whitethroats over the river. A couple of drake mallards dabbled about by the water's edge.

Mallard and ducklings, River Mersey

I stayed on the Cheshire side of the river, it's quieter on this side and I didn't want to have to negotiate my way round swarms of Chorlton cyclists. Additions to the songscape were a willow warbler singing in the trees by Chorlton Golf Course and a meadow pipit singing on Sale Golf Course. There were plenty of mallards about on the river, one duck had a bevvy of ducklings spread from bank to bank. I looked in vain for wagtails or damselflies but there were plenty of brimstones and large whites fluttering about the banks in the sunshine.

River Mersey heading towards Kenworthy Woods 

There were more brimstones and large whites fluttering about Kenworthy Woods. The songscape had been turned up to eleven, mostly blackbirds, wrens, blackcaps and robins with backing vocals from chiffchaffs, woodpigeons, song thrushes and chaffinches. Blue tits very quietly went about their business in the hawthorn bushes and were hard work to see behind the leaf cover. I suspect the quiet times during the July post-breeding moult are going to be hard going for me, the long wet Autumn that was Winter has generated a lot of very lush vegetation.

Kenworthy Woods 

I walked through and headed for the Yew Tree Road bus stop. No matter what the time of day, or whatever the schedules and web pages tell me, the 101 I am going for always passes me at the corner before the stop. Luckily they're every quarter of an hour or so, I got the next and had a similar time to wait for the 25 home from Hough Green. 

Enchanter's nightshade, by the River Mersey

Mersey Valley

Heron, Broad Ees Dole

The morning's jobs being done and dusted, I had a cup of tea and set off for a walk, I've been being a bit lazy this week and my knees have been letting me know about it.

Despite its being a mild day for January there was a crowd of gulls on the school playing field: forty-odd black-headed gulls, a few common gulls and a mixed bunch of herring gulls of various ages.

Stretford Meadows

I walked past the allotments and over to Stretford Meadows. It had become a nice early March lunchtime and the hawthorn hedge at the end of Newcroft Road was full of long-tailed tits and great tits. The open meadows were relatively quiet, just a few magpies and reed buntings and the female kestrel, but the trees around the fringes were heaving with birds. There seemed to be a mixed tit flock every twenty yards and plenty of blackbirds, robins and dunnocks. A small charm of goldfinches in the trees by St. Matthews School included a few siskins, there was a noisy flock of siskins a little further down the path. I almost missed the small flock of redwings in the treetops, I only noticed them because I was trying to find where a great spotted woodpecker was calling from.

Stretford Meadows

There was more of the same as I walked along Kickety Brook to Stretford Ees, with the added attraction of a flock of six bullfinches that flew into one of the big hawthorns by the path.

Stretford Ees was very quiet. It's obviously far too mild for stonechats to be Wintering down these parts.

Mallards, Sale Water Park

I carried on over to Sale Water Park where a herd of mute swans was loafing and dozing in the company of a few dozen black-headed gulls and some common gulls. Mallards, coots and a couple of pairs of gadwall fed by the reeds near the path.

Broad Ees Dole

The water was high on Broad Ees Dole. A dozen mallards make noises at passing dogs from the Teal Pool (there was just the one teal on the pool today, over in the reeds in the far side). The island on the main pool was mostly underwater, just enough dry land for a magpie to pick at the bones of a dead gull. A few coots and moorhens picked about on the water and a dabchick hinneyed from somewhere. And just the one heron today. I was just about to leave the hide when a kingfisher shot down the sluice and off into the trees.

There was a couple of cormorants with the crowd of Canada geese and mallards by the boathouse and a few herring gulls with the black-headed gulls. Further on, a raft of a couple of dozen tufted ducks was peppered with coots and gadwalls.

Ring-necked parakeet, Sale Water Park

I got a drink from the café and sat on the bench to see what was coming to the feeders, hoping for a willow tit or two. A couple of ring-necked parakeets had taken residence, jockeying for ownership of the bird table with a couple of squirrels so there'd probably be no chance of a willow tit today. It was interesting to watch the interplay between the parakeets and the squirrels: the parakeets would make a racket as they muscled in, they'd start feeding then they'd fly off in a panic as one of the squirrels leapt and landed with a thud on the bird table roof. This gave the crowd of great tits and blue tits the opportunity to jump in and at the sunflower feeders and fat balls until they'd be scattered by the returning parakeets. 

Bird feeding station, with parakeets, Sale Water Park

I was particularly surprised by just how effectively the long-tailed tits got their fair share: their usual strategy of pretending you're not there ruthlessly deployed by a dozen long-tailed tits can barge a ring-necked parakeet off a fat feeder. I watched them do the trick three times, each time surprised by how well it worked.

I noticed it had started raining, which explained why my cup of Oxo didn't seem to be getting any lower. I gave it another ten minutes then decided I wasn't going to add willow tit to the year list today. I wandered off through Sale Ees to Jackson's Boat where the parakeets were noisily preparing for roost and my first grey wagtail of the year was feeding by the river.

Hardy Farm

The first hundred or so of the jackdaws were coming into roost as I walked over Hardy Farm and a fair racket they were making of it.

Priory Gardens

Sketch map: Priory Gardens

Priory Gardens is about five acres of woodland by the M60 South of Sale Water Park. It's the remains of an estate bequeathed to Sale Council in the 1920s. A lot of the trees were planted by the Victorian owners of the estate so the woodland's more mature than most in the area. There's a network of paths around the woods, those from the car park on Dane Road to the underpasses to Sale Water Park are pretty good, the rest vary quite a bit. The birdlife is what you'd expect in a suburban woodland, you've a fair chance of bumping into a willow tit or two, especially in Winter.

From Sale Water Park there are two approaches to Priory Gardens:

• The path on the Western side of the lake (effectively a continuation of the path down from Stretford Ees) carries on alongside the tram track under the M60, turns and joins the path running parallel to the motorway.

• There's an underpass near the car park by The Boathouse on the South shore of the lake that joins the same path from the other end.

The path running between Priory Gardens (left) and the motorway.

The Manchester to Altrincham tram stops at Dane Road Station, turn right as you leave the station and walk down a hundred yards or so and you'll get to one of the entrances to Priory Gardens. The 18 bus, running between the Trafford Centre and Manchester Airport, stops by the car park entrance. The path from the car park leads to the path that runs parallel to the motorway.

Priory Gardens

These main paths skirt the edges of the woodland, the smaller paths coming off them let you explore the area properly. It can be a good hour or two's wander, particularly on a dry day in early Spring.

Mersey Valley

Sleeping heron, Sale Water Park

It was a bright, cool, Winter's morning so I decided to have a wander round the Mersey Valley once I'd made sure the cat and the garden birds had been fed. I'd barely put the lid on the peanut feeders before three great tits descended on it. Now the weather's turned I'll have to be careful to keep everything topped up.

Priory Gardens

Today I started my visit from Priory Gardens. I don't know why I don't do this more often, it's a nice walk and this morning it was dead quiet. Plenty of robins, blackbirds and magpies and a small tit flock in the trees by the path and plenty of noise from jays gathering the last of the acorns. The paths were a tad muddy so in the end I elected to take the bridleway path alongside the motorway and round onto Sale Water Park.

Black-headed gulls, Sale Water Park

A hundred or so black-headed gulls loafed on the water in the company of handfuls of common gulls and lesser black-backs and fifty-odd coot. A dabchick fished by the path and four great crested grebes fished over on the other side.

Walking round to Broad Ees Dole moorhens dashed to and fro across the path. A pair of mute swans and half a dozen mallards fed by the path on the "teal pool" and a dozen teal fossicked round the roots of the drowned willows.

This juvenile moorhen has earned its stripes but not its colours,
Broad Ees Dole

The pool in front of the hide was relatively quiet: a few mallard and Canada geese, a couple of dabchicks, a gadwall, a goosander and three shovelers.

The water park was getting busy with late lunchtime visitors now and I was wishing I'd brought a pointed stick with me. Five cormorants sat on the electricity pylons and a couple of others fished over by the water activity jetty. There were more ducks at this end of the lake, equal numbers of mallard, gadwall and tufties. A lone redhead goosander loafed and preened at the end of the lake.

Goosander, Sale Water Park

A chap was filling the feeders by the café, the birds not even bothering to wait for him to finish before diving in. Even the willow tits were on the bird table as he was filling the fat ball feeders a couple of feet away.

I walked through Sale Ees to Jackson's Boat. The ring-necked parakeets which had been screeching away in the background wheeled around the trees. More magpies and jays in the trees and a group of six carrion crows made a ruckus as they bounced about the treetops.

Hardy Farm

The river at Jackson's Boat was running quietly but there was no sign of any ducks or wagtails around. I decided to walk through Hardy Farm and thence home.

Mersey Valley

Nuthatch, Sale Water Park

It's been weeks since I last saw a willow tit so I had a wander down towards Sale Water Park to try my luck. The weather was fine and it's Bank Holiday weekend so there would be plenty of people about but I hoped it would still be OK.

Goldfinches, Hardy Farm

Hardy Farm was awash with magpies and jackdaws. The football field held a couple of dozen black-headed gulls and a few carrion crows and woodpigeons, scattering whenever a football came their way and returning immediately play moved back where it came from. A small flock of goldfinches, half of which were juveniles, fed on the thistles and ragworts by the path. I kept hearing ring-necked parakeets calling but it was a while before a pair flew overhead and on towards Chorlton.

Ring-necked parakeet, Jackson's Boat

The parakeets got noisier as I approached Jackson's Boat. At least two were objecting to a pair of carrion crows loafing on their favourite telegraph pole. The only water birds about were five mallards on the river below the bridge. A robin singing in the pub car park was trying and mostly failing to make itself heard above the sound of parakeets and people.

I walked down into Sale Ees where it was a little (not much) quieter. Seven parakeets flew over and landed in a couple of willow trees and immediately disappeared in the foliage, calling all the while. There were a couple of great tits and a chiffchaff in the hawthorn tree near the river and not much else for the first hundred yards. About halfway down the path towards Sale Water Park I encountered a mixed tit flock: a dozen or more long-tailed tits, a similar number of blue tits. a couple each of great tits and nuthatch and three more chiffchaffs. Woodpigeons clattered about in the trees and more flew over in squadrons high overhead.

Nuthatch and great tit, Sale Water Park

I got to Sale Water Park and went over to the café for a cup of tea and a sit down by the bird feeders. (I've come to really appreciate having somebody else make me a cup of tea.) I sat on the bench by the café overlooking the feeding station for three quarters of an hour in the hope that one of the willow tits make an appearance. It seemed like the world and his dog, oh so many of his little yapping dogs, passed by while I was waiting. A dozen great tits were about, and were always first to come back after passersby passed by. They were nearly always joined by a couple of blue tits and when things got quiet a couple of nuthatches would drop in. A coal tit dropped by and a couple of woodpigeons perched on the bird table for a while. One of the magpies that had been skittering about landed on the bird table and quickly though better of it. I've noticed this before: magpies are dead hard-faced but they seem wary of woodpigeons. Maybe they don't like being clattered about when the woodpigeons take flight.

Great tits and blue tit, Sale Water Park

No willow tits turned up, nor did I hear any. I suppose it's not really surprising given how busy things were. Something else struck me while I was watching: I never see willow tits in mixed tit flocks. I'll see them at feeding stations with other tit species but they always keep themselves separate and tend to arrive when things are quiet. On the other hand, I quite often see marsh tits in mixed tit flocks when I see them at all. I don't know if this is an established behavioural difference between the two or just my limited experience of them: I'm only ever seeing marsh tits at Leighton Moss these days.

I'd had enough of yapping dogs by then so I gave up on the idea of walking through the water park and on to Stretford and skipped off for the tram.